Greg KH, Linux kernel developer delivered a keynote in the Linux plumbing conference about the health of the ecosystem. His message was essentially that distributions that don't contribute to the ecosystem have to rely on the whims of others which is unhealthy for them. Here is an introduction the development model and some interesting statistics about the Linux kernel code. Update by TH: Rebuttals are appearing all over the web, like this one by Canonical's Matt Zimmerman ("He's refuting a claim which has, quite simply, never been made. [...] When this sort of thing happens on mailing lists, it's called trolling."), or this one by another Canonical employee, Dustin Kirkland.

I was not going to post anything further under this essentially valueless story topic. (Not referring to your thread, but to the story topic itself.) But then I ran into this little gem posted in the comments on your site. It is so very apt. And funny because it is likely so true. Regarding Ubuntu's position in the community and the detractors seemingly coming out of the woodwork, lately, to disparage it, he says:

"""
First they ignore you,
then they laugh at you,
then they fight you, ( <- you are here )
then you win.
"""